Bob Dylan, whose name has been invoked at more than one protest, used to say that "the times are a changing."

But change comes slowly--especially at Harvard.

If the organizers of last week's Junior Parents Weekend protests didn't know that already, they found out this week.

Four of the organizers--Hyewon T. Chong '95, Asian American Association Co-President Jennifer Ching '96, Raza President Xavier A. Gutierrez '95 and Minority Students Alliance Co-Chair Jean Tom '96--walked into President Neil L. Rudenstine's office hours on Wednesday to press for more minority faculty and ethnic studies classes.

What followed was an extraordinary exchange. The four students said Harvard didn't have a diverse enough faculty or an inclusive enough curriculum. The president said he agreed.

But then the president said another thing: there is basically nothing he can do.

"It's a slow process, and from the point of view of students...very hard for them, quite understandably, to feel dramatic progress," Rudenstine said in an interview this week.

That was frustrating.

The protestors' objectives are "so difficult to implement in today's bureaucracy," Ching said this week.

Last weekend, members of campus minority groups chanted, carried signs, passed out flyers and circulated a petition in and around the Science Center, where Junior Parents Weekend panels were being held.

The protests, held on both Friday and Saturday, met with some success. An estimated 522 people--mostly parents--signed the group's petition, which calls for "increased diversity in the faculty and curriculum at Harvard" and "a pro-active policy on the part of the institution for the above stated goals."

And protestors also said they raised awareness about their agenda, which includes campaigning for permanent Asian-American studies courses, professors to teach Asian-American studies and the hiring of more minority faculty from the United States.

"I think parents were overwhelmed, and a lot of them were uninformed," Ching said. "I think we really reached a lot of people who didn't know about ethnic studies before."

But in their meeting with Rudenstine, the president indicated that it would be next to impossible for the protestors to turn this awareness into real change anytime soon.

That is because of the fact that only about 20 tenured faculty positions are open each year. Change is slow, the president said.